Submitting Institution: York (University of)

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Summary of the impact

Founded in York in 1996, the Archaeology Data Service (ADS) has
transformed how archaeological research is communicated in the UK, and
impacted digital archiving throughout the world. Without the ADS, much of
the fragile digital data (often the primary record of sites now destroyed)
would have been lost. Instead, they are freely available to all. This
impact extends across national heritage agencies, local government,
commercial archaeology, and the public. Our resources are widely used with
over two million page requests per month; almost half from beyond the HE
sector. A recent study has concluded that the ADS is worth £5m per annum
to the UK economy (Beagrie & Houghton 2013). The ADS has helped shape
the digital preservation policy of English Heritage and informed practice
in the United States, Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, Sweden, and
Germany.

Summary of the impact

The impact of this research has been achieved through developing
evidence-based recommendations for personal advisers in Jobcentre Plus —
the UK's one-stop service for administering state benefits and helping
claimants into work. By opening the `black box' of adviser- claimant
interviews for the first time, the study produced the following key
impacts:

Policymakers in the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and on the
Social Security Advisory Committee (SSAC) gained an evidence-based
understanding of a key area over which they have policy control;

Summary Impact Type

Research Subject Area(s)

Summary of the impact

York research has, continuously since the early 1990's, underpinned the
methods by which a substantial proportion of the total NHS budget is
allocated by the Department of Health to the organisations providing or
arranging healthcare. Despite numerous NHS reforms, our research has
produced formulae appropriate to each new system. These formulae have
driven NHS policy on allocations across geographical areas and health care
administrative entities in England, thereby ensuring that the population
of approximately 55 million people receives a share of over £90 billion of
healthcare resources that is fair and better reflects relative health care
needs.

Submitting Institution

University of York

Unit of Assessment

Public Health, Health Services and Primary Care

Summary Impact Type

Economic

Research Subject Area(s)

Summary of the impact

A new procedure for the measurement and characterisation of
polycrystalline exchange bias
systems has been developed which has impacted significantly the
manufacture of computer hard
drive read-heads by companies such as Seagate Inc and Western Digital
Corp. The new
measurement procedure has enabled a typical 40% increase in the thermal
stability of the
antiferromagnetic materials used in computer hard drive read heads. The
procedure has also
improved the manufacturing process of the read-heads giving increased
material performance and
has resulted in a ~25% improvement in the resolution of detecting a bit.

Summary of the impact

Bio-inspired computer algorithms, developed by Dr Stephen Smith at the
University of York, have been integrated with commercially available
hardware that analyse patients' movements to diagnose and monitor a range
of neurodegenerative conditions including Parkinson's disease and
Alzheimer's disease. Clinical studies undertaken in the UK and USA report
a diagnostic accuracy exceeding 90% - a 15% improvement on current
clinical practice. A new spinout company, ClearSky Medical Diagnostics
Ltd, has licenced four products exploiting this technology to nine health
centres in the UK, USA, Singapore, Australia and UAE, transforming
clinical testing with improved diagnosis and monitoring of patients in
hospitals and their own homes.

Summary of the impact

Impact:

The underpinning research was exploited to design an exceptionally
efficient Real-Time Operating System (RTOS), used in automotive Electronic
Control Units (ECUs), and its associated schedulability analysis tools.
Since 2008, the RTOS has been deployed in 50 to 55 million new ECUs each
year. The RTOS has been standardised upon (used by default in all ECUs) by
[text removed for publication]. ([text removed for publication] in terms
of world-wide automotive powertrain systems suppliers. [text removed for
publication] all rank in the top [text removed for publication] world-wide
for chassis electronics). The RTOS is used in cars produced by [text
removed for publication] as well as many others. Revenues from the RTOS
exceed [text removed for publication] per year.

Research Subject Area(s)

Summary of the impact

Mathematical models recently developed in York have improved our
understanding of the
dynamics of marine ecosystems. They underpin paradigm-changing proposals
to orient fisheries
policy towards a "balanced harvest" and away from the traditional
selective harvesting of species
and sizes. These proposals have:

influenced, and are now being actively pursued by, international NGOs
involved in shaping the
future direction of fisheries policy worldwide;

informed and stimulated debate among policy makers in the EU
Parliament and elsewhere;

been incorporated into long range planning for Norwegian fishery
management.

Summary of the impact

The History Department's Centre for the Study of Christianity and Culture
(CSCC) employed its research expertise in religious history to improve the
understanding and sustainability of historic churches and cathedrals.
These together form England's largest single 'estate' of built heritage
with over 11 million visitors each year. From 2008 the Centre developed an
extensive programme of national partnerships, which have led to
significant and wide-reaching impact:

(i) creating new aids to help visitors engage with sacred sites

(ii) encouraging tourism and enhancing access to these national and
international heritage sites for people from all cultural and faith
backgrounds

Summary of the impact

Research at York has had a direct impact on national guidance about the
use of health technologies in the NHS. It provided methods that are used
to assess whether a technology is expected to be a cost-effective use of
NHS resources, how uncertain this assessment is likely to be and whether
additional evidence is sufficiently valuable to recommend further research
to support its widespread use. It has had an impact on the technologies
available in the NHS and the evidence available to support their use:
improving patient outcomes; saving NHS resources and strengthening the
evidence base for clinical practice. It gives an explicit signal and
incentive to manufacturers; informing development decisions and the type
of evidence collected. It has had an international impact on how the
adequacy of evidence is judged and research is prioritised; particularly
in recent reforms in the United States (US) where the principles of this
value of information (VOI) analysis are informing the prioritisation of
$3.8bn for `comparative effectiveness research'. It has also informed the
methods used in low and middle income countries, especially national
agencies in health care systems in South East Asia and South America, as
well as global funding bodies.

Submitting Institution

University of York

Unit of Assessment

Economics and Econometrics

Summary Impact Type

Political

Research Subject Area(s)

Summary of the impact

Research at York undertaken by Bradshaw, Skinner, Corden and Davidson,
directly influenced
child support policy throughout the period 2008-2013, informing the
radical change that abolished
the Child Support Agency and returned child maintenance to the hands of
parents to make private
agreements under the `Child Maintenance and Other Payments' Act 2008. It
also contributed to
the decision to disregard child support payments and thus allow child
support to increase lone
parent incomes and reduce child poverty. More recently our research has
contributed to the
evolution of policy under the Coalition Government in the 2012 `Welfare
Reform' Act, which
introduced new `relationship support' services to improve co-parenting
relationships, reduce
conflict and improve child well-being.